Merrie spent most of her first 18 years in St. Louis, Mo, but moved to Montana for college and has lived in western states ever since. Merrie followed her parents into teaching, earning bachelor degrees in Biology and Education and a MEd from University of Montana. She has taught all levels of 7-12 science and math in six different schools across four states and has experience in urban, rural, public, and private education. Merrie retired from k-12 teaching in 2016 and currently works part-time as an adjunct for Lewis-Clark College Department of Education and serves as the State Director for the Idaho Science & Engineering Fairs.

Brad was born and raised in Massachusetts. After receiving a B.S. in Chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he moved to Boise in 1993 to work for Micron Technology. At Micron, he worked as an engineer doing process development for semiconductor devices, and then managed process development in the Etch area of Micron's R&D facility. In 2003, Brad and his family moved to California. During his years in California, he was a Principal Engineer working on process and device development at Intel Corporation, a Managing Director for core etch technology at Lam Research Corporation, and Vice President of Etch Advanced Technology at Applied Materials Corporation. Brad and his family really missed living in Boise, so they moved back in 2014. He retired from the semiconductor industry in spring of 2016, and he has kept himself busy since then by working on the Idaho Science & Engineering Fairs, gardening, mountain bike riding, and doing science experiments / engineering projects with his two sons.